


Dead Frequency

by TheBean170



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Car Accidents, F/F, Grief/Mourning, Insanity, Radio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-29 21:17:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18302111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBean170/pseuds/TheBean170
Summary: Lapis thought she had lost Peridot.Yet, when that broken radio started speaking to her in that oh so familiar voice, she questioned whether she really did lose her happiness.





	Dead Frequency

Three weeks ago, Lapis Lazuli lived through the worst day of her life.

Truth be told, the day started pretty well. She had woken up next to her beautiful girlfriend, Peridot Greene, the person who had been the love of her life for more than a year now. A blonde haired nerd who Lapis had met while earning her associates, and had fallen so deeply in love with not only her smarts and wit, but her passion and lovingness. She was the person Lapis had expected to be with for the rest of her life.

She had a sluggish start, dragging herself into the kitchen to make cheep, subpar coffee in their small little apartment. But, her morning was quickly brightened by a warm hug and a shared kiss from her adorable blonde.

“Love you, Lappy.” Peridot said with a cute smile

“Love you too, Peri.” Lapis responded, sipping a bit of her coffee.

“You should get ready, don’t wanna get stuck in traffic and get yelled at again for being late.” The blonde said as she moved into the kitchen to begin making herself breakfast.

“Aw. Can’t I stay a little while longer with you?” The bluenette pleaded as she leaned against her girlfriend, wrapping her arms around her neck and nuzzling into her shoulder.

Peridot snickered. “As much as I’d love to stay by your side longer, we both need to get to work. Besides, you know we can spend time together as soon as you get home.” She said.

“Ugh, fine. Gonna miss you the entire time, though.”

“Gonna miss you too, Lappy.”

Lapis had left for her work soon after that: A small coffee shop on the corner of a busy street. She was usually treated like shit, and the pay wasn’t all that great, but it helped pay the bills. So, she pushed through it, knowing full well that her loving girlfriend would be waiting for her as soon as she got home.

Life was stressful at times, but with Peridot at her side, everything seemed just that much easier for Lapis.

Peridot was the light of her life.

As she pulled into her driveway and walked up towards the cafe building, she could feel her excitement for the day slip away from her grasp.

She walked inside the building and behind the counter into the backroom, quickly putting on an apron and a hat with the business's logo. She walked out of the backroom and took her place behind the counter.

“Morning, Lapis? How are you doing this morning?”

Lapis turned to see her coworker Pearl, a tall skinny girl with very light pink hair, greeting her with a cheerful voice and a bright smile.

“Hey Pearl. I’m doing alright. Could be better, though. How’re you doing?” The bluenette said with a tired expression.

“I’m doing wonderful this morning, actually! I hope your day gets better, though.” The coworker said as she practically skipped towards her daily tasks.

Lapis could never understand how someone could be so happy working at a crappy job like this. Yet, very clearly, Pearl was here doing her job with a smile and a tune in her heart.

“How do you do it, Pearl? How do you stay so happy during your job?” Lapis asked.

“Oh, you know. I just think about what I’ll do once I finally get out of here. The people I’ll meet, the places I’ll go, the things I’ll do. That’s what gets me through a day.” Pearl explained.

Lapis nodded and refocused on her job. She understood what the other girl meant. In a way, Lapis did something similar. Peridot was her motive to get through the day. Peridot was the one she waited to come home to.

Peridot was her everything. Peridot was her happiness.

It was around 11 o’clock in the morning when she got the call.

She was working the counter, taking an order from a disgruntled customer, when her phone buzzed to life.

It was… a number with no caller ID? That was odd.

 _‘It’s probably just a scam. Although… Scams usually have a caller ID.’_  She thought as she stared at the phone.

“Pearl,” she yelled to her coworker, “I gotta take a call.”

The coworker gave her the go ahead, and Lapis slipped away from the front counter. She stepped outside and finally answered the call.

“Hello? Who is this?” She asked with suspicion.

“Hello, is this Lapis Lazuli?” An unknown male voice said on the other end.

“Yeah… who’s asking?” She responded, slight panic filling her heart.

“Ms. Lazuli, I’m with the Beach City Police Department. We are contacting you to inquire if you know a ‘Peridot Greene’ and what her relation with you is.” The voice continued.

“Uh… Y-Yeah I know her. She’s my girlfriend. Wait, what’s this all about?” Lapis asked, fearing the worst.

“Ma’am, I… I’m sorry to inform you that Ms. Greene has expired after getting into a fatal eight vehicle, car wreck. She asked us to inform you as her emergency contact before dying to blood loss. I’m terribly sorry for your loss.”

_‘No…’_

“S-She’s dead?” Lapis stuttered, hands starting to shake.

“Yes. Died due to blood loss. We have yet to establish the cause of the accident, but we do know that Ms. Greene was not one of the causes.”

_‘No. It can’t be true. She can’t be dead.’_

Lapis felt her phone slip out of her hand and fall to the ground. Her entire body started shaking as she fell to her knees. Tears soon formed in her eyes as her thoughts seemed to overwhelm her.

“Ma’am? Are you still there?” The voice on her phone asked.

Lapis didn’t respond. She couldn’t do much of anything. All she could do was lay on the ground and cry.

When her coworkers finally came out to check on her, they found her in a worse state than she had ever seen in her life.

~0~

The funeral was only a few days later. Many of Peridot’s and Lapis’ friends showed up to pay their respects, Their parents did not, but both girls were estranged and distant from their families.

There were many tears shed, and many condolences uttered, but no one was grieving as hard as Lapis was. She was in an almost constant state of tears and shaking, unable to think about anything except the fact that she had lost the most important person in her life forever. She wept softly throughout the entire service and, when she was asked if she wanted to give a few words, broke down into a fit of loud sobs in front of the entire group.

No one saw Lapis for almost three weeks. She stayed shut inside her apartment, either sleeping or crying about the loss of her special someone, her soulmate one could say. The only times she would get out of bed were to shower, use the bathroom, or put what little food and water she could stomach into her system.

She skipped work, not showing up at all or calling in sick. Somehow, her friends managed to cover for her for as long as possible, until at least she got out of this depression spiral and attempted to return to her day to day life.

It felt like her world had gone bleak. Like all the color had been taken out of it forever.

Peridot had been the light of her life, and now her world was dark.

She spent some of her days looking at old pictures of the couple and videos Peridot had recorded of the two. She would dig through some of the nerd’s stuff just to gain any sort of closure she could manage.

And that’s how she found it.

While Lapis was digging through some of the couple’s older things, she came across a medium sized box. It had no labels on it, yet it was obviously Peridot’s due to all of the alien and star stickers plastered all over the box.

Lapis chuckled a little at the cute decorations as she brought the box over to Peridot’s desk. She sat down in the chair and slowly began opening the box.

Inside was a… old ham radio?

A confused expression overcame the bluenette slowly removed the old piece of machinery and placed it in front of her.

It was clearly old, and had gone through many different repairs. Its green paint appeared to be chipping off, some of the glass on it was cracked, and there appeared to be many different replacement parts. Attached to the device was a small note written in green pen.

_Gonna fix this thing up soon enough! See what kind of people I can meet on the radio stations!_

Under this phrase was a smaller note.

_Scratch that. Thing’s busted beyond repair. Won’t work no matter what I do to it. Remind myself to throw it out._

_‘Huh. She must’ve had this before we met. I’ve never seen this before.’_  She thought to herself as she looked the device over.

Lapis stared at the device for a few minutes before feeling tears start forming in her eyes again.

 _‘God I miss you, Peridot. I wish I could just have you by my side again. Just hearing your voice would be enough. I just want to hear your voice again.’_  She thought as she broke down into sobs again, laying her head down on the desk in front of the radio.

She fell asleep in front of her radio, crying until she had no more tears to cry.

~0~

Lapis had woken up to a strange noise.

Her eyes fluttered open as they adjusted to the sunlight entering through her window. She groaned as her head pounded with pain from dehydration. She raised her head up from the desk and squinted her eyes at the sun.

 _‘Guess I slept all through the night…’_  She thought as she yawned. She was about to get up and grab a bit of water when she heard the strange noise again.

It was coming from the radio.

The unplugged, supposedly broken radio.

Lapis stared at the machine with a confused expression, listening as static flowed freely through its speakers.

“Wha… I thought this thing was supposed to be busted?” She muttered to herself.

She hesitantly reached a hand towards the device as she turned one of the dials.

The static cleared partially, but it was still very clear.

“Maybe Peri installed some sort of battery in this thing. But why did it turn on now?”

She kept turning the dial, hoping that perhaps she could tune it to the right frequency.

 _“La… Come in… Can’t hear…”_  A voice said through the radio, although it was so muffled and static filled that Lapis really couldn’t make out what it was saying.

She turned and tuned both knobs of the radio, desperately trying to figure out who was contact her, when she heard it.

The voice. One she thought she would never hear again.

_“Lapis? Come in, Lapis? I can’t hear you clearly.”_

The bluenette felt her blood run cold as she heard that voice speak through the machine in front of her.

“P-P-Peridot?” She sputtered.

 _“Lapis! There you are! Can you please pick up the mic? I can’t hear you that clearly.”_  The familiar nasally voice said.

Lapis screamed as she shot up from the chair, quickly backing away and falling on her floor. Her breathing was hitched and barely existent as she hyperventilated.

“W-What is going on? Why are you- What is….” She struggled to say.

 _“Lapis, you’re fading out. Can you pick up the mic please?”_  The radio asked again.

“It… It’s you?” The bluenette asked hesitatntly, slowly getting up from the floor.

_“Yes it’s me! It’s Peridot! Can you please pick up now?”_

Lapis took uncertain steps towards the radio and sat back down in the chair. With extremely shakey hands, she took the radio mic and brought it close to her face. Pressing the button on the side, she spoke into it.

“H-Hello?”

_“Lapis! It’s so good to finally hear you clearly!”_

“I thought… I thought you were…”

Lapis could feel herself on the verge of breaking down. Hearing her voice, having her talk to her again, it was getting to be to much.

 _“Thought I was what? Lapis, are you okay? You sound like you’re on the verge of crying.”_  The radio asked.

No. She couldn’t do this. She turned the dials on the radio with such speed, she thought she would snap them off.

The noise turned back to static.

~0~

Lapis eventually went back to work. She had to. Someone had to pay the rent in her apartment.

She never smiled. To her, it seemed pointless to smile. The light of her life had just been extinguished for good, and people expected her to get over it? No, she wouldn’t. Her happiness was gone, and all that’s left was a hole left in her heart.

She struggled through her day. Struggled through waking up in the morning, knowing that her beautiful girlfriend wouldn’t be there to give her good morning kisses. Struggled through work, knowing she would have no one to come home to, no one to spend time with, to cuddle up to and never let go.

But, she struggled at home. Struggled with even entering the building.

Because the static never stopped.

That stupid radio sat on the desk in her room, taunting her with that sickening noise. She could never get it to stop. No matter what she did, no matter how many times she tried to find some sort of battery in the damn thing, it still kept making noise.

Lapis even contemplated throwing it out a window, to watch as it shattered into millions of pieces as it fell to the ground.

But… She could never bring herself to do it. That radio was something Peridot worked on. It was one of Peridot’s things. And Lapis could never bring herself to breaking one of Peridot’s things.

Much less knowing it was Peridot’s voice on the other end.

She was still so mentally shaken at the event. Just hearing her girlfriend’s voice again was almost enough to force Lapis back into another extreme depression. It was what she would equate to seeing a ghost.

She took a vow to never tune that radio again, no matter how deafening that static was.

But that vow would change.

One night, while she was driving home from work, Lapis decided to turn on her car’s stereo. Anything to try and distract her from her thoughts, to break the silence she knew she wouldn’t have when she got home.

At least this silence wasn’t a reminder.

She pressed a button on her stereo while stopped in traffic, and almost leapt out of the car.

The song that was playing, she knew it.

It was their song. Lapis and Peridot’s. The one they sang along to and listened to, the one they danced to and the one Lapis promised herself would play at their wedding.

“No, don’t do this to me now. Please.” The bluenette begged.

She wanted to move to turn the music off. She desperately wanted. But she couldn’t. All she could do was take in shuddery breaths and force herself not to break down crying again.

_‘I just want to talk to her again. To hear her voice. Is that too much to ask?’_

But then, Lapis realized, it wasn’t too much to ask.

She already had Peridot’s voice available to her, right at home.

_‘No, that thing is not her.’_

But did she really know that?

What if Peridot really was trying to contact her, from wherever she was? What if Lapis had been purposely shutting her out because she didn’t believe it to be true?  
  


She needed to know. She needed to be sure.

She needed to hear her Peridot again.

When the traffic finally let up, she sped home as fast as possible.

~0~

When she walked into the apartment, she was immediately met with the noise of static. She shut her door and raced over to her room, towards the desk where that damnable machine sat.

When she actually reached the desk, however she hesitated.

_‘What if it’s all in my head? What if, when I turn those dials, there’ll still be more static? Will I be able to handle that?’_

Taking a deep breath, Lapis put on a determined expression as she sat down at the desk.

_‘It doesn’t matter. I need to hear her again. I have to.’_

She fiddled and turned and messed with the dials, trying desperately to retune the radio back to the station where that familiar voice was. Every hour that passed trying to find the right frequency, Lapis only felt her conviction grow stronger.

Until she finally found it.

Almost all at once, the static cleared up, and a familiar voice filled the room.

 _“Lapis?! Are you there?! I’ve been trying to contact you for weeks now! Why are you ignoring me?! Please, just talk to me, I want to hear you again!”_  The radio begged.

Lapis let out a watery laugh as she grabbed the mic from the side, bringing it close to her face and clicking it on.

“P-Peri? Is that you? Are you there?” She said with a wavering voice.

A gasp could be heard from the other end.

 _“Lapis! Oh my stars, I thought you had disappeared forever!”_  The voice shouted, happiness filling its words.

Lapis felt a small smile take over her face.

Even if she was insane, she felt incomprehensible euphoria at hearing her girlfriend’s voice again.

_‘I may be going insane. But I don’t care.’_

~0~

Lapis took to speaking with the radio whenever she had time. Her days seemed to brighten up as soon as she got home and picked up that mic, speaking into the radio and talking with her girlfriend.

The two would recall memories, would share jokes, would laugh and share compliments between each other, almost as if Peridot had never… left.

Left. That was a nicer word for it.

Lapis would never bring up the car accident to the radio. She pushed it out of her head completely. Somehow, she felt that acknowledging it would cause Peridot to disappear for good this time, and she couldn’t have that.

Instead, she vowed she would spend every moment she could speaking with Peridot, cherishing every second she missed before she left. Relishing every new conversation that she had with Peridot. Her days seemed to get happier. She actually smiled for once. She actually… felt happy.

One could mistake this for her getting better.

Lapis started showing up late for work. Real late, by about an hour. She was too busy talking to Peridot in the mornings to remember when she had to go in. When she arrived, her hair was always a mess, and her entire aura oozed unkempt. But, she kept a wide smile, never leaving her face.

A wide, sickeningly sweet smile.

Lapis stopped sleeping. She didn’t need it. Peridot would be able to keep her awake. Besides, sleep is for people who don’t cherish their girlfriends, who don’t stay by their side as long as they could.

Lapis would simply enter the apartment and immediately go for the radio when she got back from work. Sometimes, she would forget to eat. Sometimes she would forget to drink. But Peridot would always remind her.

Peridot was all she needed. That radio was all she needed.

Lapis started entering work really late. Like, halfway through the workday late. Her boss would always chide her, call her out for her slowly deteriorating upkeep. Lapis didn’t care. She just needed to get home to Peridot. Peridot was waiting for her at home.

She stopped showing up for work one day.

Her coworkers were all worried for her. They had seen their friend go from depressed, to empty, and then suddenly do a 180 and come into work wearing a creepy grin on her face and a wide eyed stare. And now she wasn’t showing up anymore.

Lapis didn’t care. She didn’t need to work. All she needed was Peridot. That radio was all she needed.

She wasn’t insane. That radio was proof. The voice that came through the speakers was proof.

She wasn’t insane.

~0~

What if Peridot wasn’t dead?

Lapis was sitting in front of the radio, dressed in the same clothes since three weeks ago, listening to Peridot ramble on about Camp Pining Hearts, when the thought hit her.

_‘What if she wasn’t dead?’_

It could make some sort of sense. It would explain why they were talking right this moment. It would explain why she was able to hear her voice.

_‘Have they been lying to me? Did they… Did they try to take away my happiness, hide her away from me?’_

Lapis didn’t know who ‘They’ were, but she figured it was someone that must really hate Lapis. Someone who was willing to take away all the happiness from her life.

_‘But, I was at her funeral. I saw them bury her…’_

What funeral? Who did they bury? Peridot was alive, she was speaking to her right now for god’s sake!

That was just it. Peridot was alive. They had taken her from Lapis. Someone did, she didn’t know.

There was no accident. What accident? Lapis didn’t remember anything about an accident. She didn’t remember much of anything before finding the radio.

The radio was all that mattered to Lapis. Peridot was all that mattered to Lapis.

_‘But… Why would she never say anything? Why is she acting like nothing ever happened?’_

The voice on the radio kept asking for Lapis to respond. The bluenette stayed silent as she thought about her next move.

_‘They must be tricking her. Forcing her to act normal and keep quiet. That’s why she isn’t begging for help, why she isn’t screaming for me to find her. I have to find her!’_

It was up to Lapis to find her. Find her Peridot. She would find her.

Peridot was all that mattered to Lapis.

 _“Lapis?! Why are you so silent?! Are you still there? Lapis, please respond!”_  The radio begged.

Lapis slowly brought the mic back up to her face and spoke into it. “It’s okay, Peri. I’m here. In fact, I’m going to come find you. I’ll find you Peri. You’re the only thing that matters to me. You’re my happiness. I’ll find you, Peridot.” She said in an unhinged voice, that wide, deranged smile still on her face.

With that, she walked over and pulled out her laptop, beginning to make plans. She would find her girlfriend if it was the last thing she would do.

~0~

Pearl pulled up to the apartment complex, worriedness filling her core. She didn’t really want to make this trip, but she had no choice.

When she saw Lapis come in that dreadful day with a smile on her face, she felt happy herself at first. Her friend was smiling again, what was there not to feel happy about? She had though the bluenette was getting better again.

But… something about that smile, the way Lapis moved and carried herself, it unervered her. Made her nervous for her coworker.

When Lapis started showing up extremely late for work, Pearl had tried to confront her on it. All Lapis had done in return was smile and stare at her friend, only saying one phrase.

“I’m fine, Pearl. I found my happiness again!”

When Lapis officially stopped showing up for work, Pearl had assumed she had fallen into another depression spiral. She covered for her at work as much as she could, but eventually her boss got fed up and threatened to terminate the bluenette’s position if she didn’t show up the next day. It didn’t help that Lapis had been answering NO ONE’S call or messages, including the near 100 Pearl had sent.

She decided she had enough. She drove over to Lapis’ apartment complex, determined to find out what was going on with her friend.

Now that she was at Lapis’ door though, she hesitated. She truly didn’t know what state what Lapis would be in on the other side of the door, but she felt scared to see it,

Finally coming to grips that she needed to face this problem head on, Pearl raised her hand slowly and knocked a few times on the door.

“Lapis? Are you there? It’s me, Pearl!” She shouted.

No response.

Pearl knocked again. “Lapis, please open up! People are worried about you, we haven’t seen you in almost a month! Can we just talk?”

Still no response.

Pearl grumbled a bit before speaking up again. “I’m coming inside!”

She pulled out her keychain, pulled the one Lapis had given her for ‘emergency purposes’ (This seemed like a pretty damned good emergency to use it), and went to unlock the door when she realized something.

The door was already unlocked.

Confused, she slowly opened the door and walked inside.

She gasped as she saw the state of unkempt the apartment was in. Everything was dusty, clothes littered the floor and one of the lamps had been knocked over. Still, there was no sign of Lapis in the main area. And since the apartment was so small, the only place left to check was the bedroom.

Pearl carefully made her way to the bedroom door and knocked on it a few times. When she received no response, she sucked in a shaky breath and slowly opened the door, preparing for the worst.

Nothing could have prepared her for what was on the other side.

The interior of the room was covered in papers, maps, and strings. It looked like something out of a detective movie, like a room used solely for investigation.

Pearl walked inside and looked around. There were even papers littering the floor, and scribblings and diagrams littered all over them.

The only place in the room free from these sheets was a small wooden desk and chair pressed up against a wall.

Pearl carefully walked over to the desk, feeling more and more unnerved as she stepped into the room.

There was only one thing sitting on the desk in the room: An old, busted up ham radio that sat in silence.

Pearl bent down over the desk, inspecting the machine. It was unplugged, and looked in pretty bad shape. Cracked glass, peeling paint.

“This thing should've been thrown out months ago. Why would Lapis keep it?” Pearl muttered as she took hold of the device.

The thing was unpowered. The power switch wasn't even flicked on.

“Maybe it has a battery?” She wondered as she flicked the switch on.

Nothing.

Curious still, Pearl started fiddling with one of the tuning knobs, seeing if perhaps the radio was some sort of elaborate container.

She turned the knobs left and right, expecting perhaps a secret compartment to pop out, when she heard a noise from somewhere in the apartment.

The front door, opening and closing.

Panicking, Pearl turned her head to the door of the bedroom to try and see who had entered. All the girl could see was a shadow getting closer to the room.

Then, she heard a voice.

“A-Alright, Peri, I found a few books in the library that should h-help me find where you are!” She heard it say, the tones sounding deranged and unstable.

Pearl stayed frozen in place as she saw the figure finally enter in view.

It was… Lapis?

Lapis had entered the room wearing dirty, disheveled clothing. Her hair was a mess and she had such deep bags under her bloodshot eyes, all while wearing a terrifying smile.

However, when she entered the room and saw Pearl holding the radio, her smile quickly disappeared.

“P-Pearl? What are you doing here?” She asked with a shaky voice.

Then the bluenette saw Pearl's hand on the radio knob, and screamed.

“What are you doing?!” She shouted as she dropped the books in her hands and rushed towards her old coworker.

Pearl fell to the ground with an ‘umf’, shoved out of the way by Lapis as she grabbed the radio from her hands.

“Come on, come on, come on! Work!” She pleaded as she leaned over the desk, turning the dials like she was tuning into a frequency.

Pearl watched in almost pure dread as the bluenette obsessed over the unpowered and broken radio, muttering nervously to herself. Yet, after about five minutes… She let out a sigh of relief for some reason, before saying something that chilled Pearl to the bone.

“Oh thank god, Peri, I thought I lost you.”

The other girl watched as the bluenette picked up the radio mic, starting a full conversation with the broken radio. She would say something along the lines of ‘I’m so sorry Peridot, I thought I lost you’ and then proceeded to listen to dead silence for a minute. It almost seemed she forgot that Pearl was in the room.

The former coworker slowly got up from the floor, keeping her eye on Lapis the entire time. She kept silent for a while, watching the other have a conversation with no one, before finally speaking up.

“L-Lapis? Who are you talking to?” She said hesitantly.

Lapis glared at Pearl with an eerie look before speaking into the radio mic again.

“Hang on Peri. I need to deal with someone real quick.” She said before putting down the mic and turning to Pearl. “What are you doing here,  _Pearl?_ ”

The other was shocked by the way Lapis had said her name. “I, uh… I came to c-check on you, Lapis. Nobody has seen you in a month! People are worried about you, I’m worried about you! You look like a mess, your room looks like an asylum patient decorated it, a-and… and you’re talking to a broken radio! You need help!” She explained.

“What. Did. You. Say?” Lapis snarled as she took a step towards

Pearl gulped. Uh oh, that wasn’t the right thing to say.

“W-Wait, Lapis I-”  
  
“Broken? BROKEN?! That radio is the only thing that keeps me going every single day! What are you trying to say? That I’m crazy? I’m not insane! That radio is proof! And then you barge into our home and try to take her away from me?!” The bluenette ranted as she stepped closer and closer towards Pearl, backing the girl into a wall.

“L-Lapis, calm down! I didn’t say you were crazy, I said you needed help!” The former coworker stammered.

“Need help?! You know what I need help with?! Finding Peridot! But I can’t trust anyone! Not… Not even…”

Lapis dropped off at the end of that sentence, her eyes going wide before narrowing on Pearl. The bluenette now towered over the other girl.

“Why were you grabbing that radio, Pearl?” She asked, voice laced with suspicion and malice.

“I, Uh…”

“I thought the radio was supposed to be  _broken,_ Pearl. Why would you mess with it if it was already  _broken_?”

“I just thought it was-”

“Thought it was what? You know something I don’t, Pearl?! Something about Peridot?! Maybe you’re trying to hide HER from me?!” Lapis yelled, her eyes seething with hate.

“Lapis, calm down!” Pearl begged, terrified for her safety at this point.

“YOU! You’re one of them, aren’t you! You tried to take my happiness away from me!” The bluenetter growled before wrapping her hands around Pearl’s throat.

Pearl clawed at Lapis’ face while being choked, her eyes wide with fear and her face warped in pain. She slapped and hit and punched, all the while her head was getting light and her vision going black. She was certainly going to die of she didn't make a move.

Then, just as she was about to pass out, Pearl’s nail found its way into Lapis’ eye.

The bluenette screamed as she let go of the other girl, her hands choosing instead to paw at her eye in an attempt to stop the blood flowing from it.

Pearl fell to her hands and knees, hacking and coughing in an attempt to get air back into her lungs and her vision cleared. As soon as she could see properly, she got up on wobbly legs and made her way to the front door as quickly as possible.

She was halfway past the living room before she was hit in the back of the head with something blunt.

With a squeal, she fell to the floor again, her head filling with stinging pain.

Lapis towered above her, holding a metal baseball bat she had kept from her youth.

“I am not letting you get away, you monster. You tried to take my everything away from me! My Peridot, my happiness!” She screamed before lifting the baseball bat and bringing it down on Pearl’s back.

The pain in her back was enough to distract Pearl from the pain in her head, and so she started crawling her way towards the front door, loud sobs escaping her mouth.

Before she could even reach the door, however, Lapis used her foot to flip her ‘friend’ on her back. She stood above her like a predator over their prey, ready to make the kill. She raised the bat and brought it down on the girl’s body. Over and over again, she brutally beat the friend within an inch of her life.

Panting, she stared down at the battered and broken body below her. Bleeding, bruises all over, the girl whimpered and cried as her eyes struggled to stay open.

She leaned forward and whispered into her ‘friend’s’ ear.

“I'm going to find her, Pearl. No matter where you hide her from. You can't fool me anymore.”

The last thing Pearl would do was scream and beg for her life as Lapis lifted the bat over her head again, bringing it down on the other girl's head.

**_*CRACK*_ **

Lapis let the baseball bat drop to her side, watching the blood pool from Pearl’s head with sick enjoyment, her eyes glazing over as they stared off lifelessly.

She had gotten payback. Stopped one of the people who had taken her happiness.

But her journey wasn't over. She still had to find Peridot.

The bluenette rushed back into her room and began pulling certain papers off of the wall, ripping them off without care.

 _“L-Lapis? What's going on? I heard a struggle, are you okay?”_  The radio spoke, as it always did for Lapis.

“I'm fine, Peri. In fact, I've never been better! I'm coming to get you, Peri! I'm coming right now, just you wait!” Lapis spoke as she stuffed the papers into a nearby backpack, along with a large book and her laptop.

 _“Coming where? Lapis, I heard Pearl out there. Is she okay?”_  The radio questioned.

“That  _demon_ is gone now, Peri. She paid for trying to take you from me.” The bluenette growled.

 _“Demon? Taking me?! What are you talking about, Lapis? You’re really starting to worry me!”_ The radio continued.

“You don't have to keep pretending, Peridot! I know they've taken you, but I'm gonna get you back! Now, I gotta go for a bit, but I'll talk as soon as I can, okay?” Lapis said before slinging her backpack onto her shoulders.

With that, the bluenette grabbed the radio with as much care as possible, holding it almost lovingly as she stepped out of the room.

She gave one last hateful glare towards Pearl’s body before running out of the apartment towards her car.

~0~

When the landlord came to collect far overdue rent from one Lapis Lazuli, he didn’t expect anything out of the ordinary upon entering the apartment.

What he found was a mess of mad scribblings and the dead body of one Pearl Laroche.

After calling in the body, police began a citywide search for Lapis Lazuli, deeming her mentally insane and possibly dangerous.

Nobody found Lapis Lazuli.

She completely disappeared from the city, from the state, and possibly from the country. Nobody ever saw her again.

This, of course, was unknown to Lapis Lazuli. However, even if she had known, she wouldn't have cared.

She had her radio, her happiness, and a goal.

That radio was all that mattered to Lapis.

Peridot was all that mattered to Lapis.


End file.
